Meeting You Again
by iAndromeda
Summary: When her eyes first catch him, it's a tough call between running away in the opposite direction, never looking back and pulling him in for a long embrace. An AU Kavin-Purvi meeting.
1. Again

_~Meeting You Again~_

Chapter 1:

When her eyes first catch him, it's a tough call between running away in the opposite direction, never looking back and pulling him in for a long embrace.

The effect on her is immediate: there's a sharp intake of breath and her heart beats to come out of her rib cage. Although hard, she takes a deep breath, hoping against hope that he hasn't noticed her, as she turns on her heels and walks away.

She curses herself for not reading the details of the training carefully enough to be oblivious to the fact that he is a part of the program. _Of course_ they would have needed senior officers. And _of course_ he needed to volunteer. _My life is governed by the Murphy's law_ she thinks sorely. First, the DCP sending her to this training the same day she had returned from the very tedious assignment. And now, _him_ being present at the training.

It's been a while since she's seen him. In those two seconds of looking at him, she worries how tired he looks. His cheeks somehow seem a bit hollow and his eyes have bags under them. _Is he taking care of himself? Is he resting enough between his duty? Is he fine?_ She firmly tells her brain to shut up. His well being is no longer her concern. _Does he eat properly? And why does he look so ragged?_ Shut up. Shut up. _How is-_

Swearing a little under her breath, she notices she's reached the Shooting range.

There is no one present except for her. She eyes the row with the longest range. She tells herself that is so because she wants to better her aim. It has nothing to with the knowledge that he would have chosen the very same track. No way does she want to fire in that particular place just because he, being extremely accurate at his aim, would have chosen the track with the farthest target.

Covering her ears, she hopes to fire away his toughts from her mind like the bullets from the gun.

And as the bullet hits the dummy, right in the middle of its head, she wonders what time he'll come here to practice.

...

Firing the bullets, one after another, with a negligible time interval in between the shots, Kavin gets a strange feeling that she pictures his face on that dummy.

Just seeing her makes him ridiculously happy. There she is, eyes squinted in concentration, face in a frown, her hands grasping the gun tight as she puts all her efforts in firing the bullets. He wonders if she knows it's his spot she's firing from.

He wants to call out to her. To go and talk to her, look into her eyes and just be there with her. But he knows that if he opens his mouth to talk to her, he is going to be taking the dummy's place.

He hears someone calling out for him. Partially cursing that person and partially being thankful for preventing him from being rooted to the spot, staring at her like an idiot, he smiles as he glances at her one last time and moves away.

...

DANG. THAT. MURPHY'S. STUPID. LAW.

Purvi helplessly stares at the list assigning the groups for the drill. He is the supervisor of the group she is in. She hopes, maybe, just maybe, he won't notice her. She lets out a frustrated sigh.

Who is she kidding? There are hardly seven people in the group and there is no way on the earth he won't notice. Unless he's a total retard.

She considers this for a moment. Him being a total retard, she likes the sound of that. Besides, he has proven on more that one occasion that he is surely capable of that title.

"Hoping that I'll be a total retard and won't notice you?"

Purvi jumps at that. She is about to treat him to an earful of insults for scaring her by appearing outta nowhere when she stops herself and just makes a face at him like she can't bother answering his question.

She hates the accuracy with which he has identified her thoughts. She tries to find traces of smugness on his face and is surprised when she finds none. He has the most innocent and rueful half smile on his face that makes her kness wobble in an instant.

Wrong decsion to look at his smile. But no, she knows much better than to go weak in the knees for him. She looks him straight in the eye and and asks, "have I got a reason for that?"

He looks at her for a moment, considering the question, and shrugs. He opens his mouth to say something but either the words stick to his throat or he forgets them. Either way, the groups are called to assemble and both head their way.

...

"So yeah, that's pretty much the entire drill" he tells his group.

It takes all the energy to not look at her but Kavin is a professional. He is not going to be some love-sick guy looking at her all the time making things uncomforatble for the both of them. Especially not in front of the entire group.

And it is no surprise to him that she is the best among the group. Acing the drill at the very first attempt, he can't help but smile at her.

Purvi can't help but look at him first when she finishes the drill.

She sees him give her a brief smile. Not exactly a thousand-watt but at least a ten-watt bulb glows inside her.

...

She can tell he's in the canteen without even looking up from her plate. Almost like she's psychic to his presence or something. Purvi shudderes. Too much of mind talk. She determinedly does not look up from her plate.

Kavin can tell that and so he doesn't insist on making eye contact with her. Instead, he just give a recognistion nod her way when their eyes meet for a split second.

Purvi is really surprised by how diplomatic he seems to be acting.

That is until he stands next to her table and asks her if can sit down. Everywhere else is full, he says. She consideres this and he gives her a wide grin as he sits down, even before she can answer.

Jerk.

She rolls her eyes at him and gets up as she's finished her plate and starts to walk away.

"Hey" he says as he catches up to her. Purvi turns around, her hands crossed as if warning him to stop talking when Kavin says, "good job on the drill today" and walks away before she can react. One corner of her mouth lifts upward as she tries her best not to smile.

* * *

Inspirations: Rick Castle and Kate Beckett (Castle)

* * *

A/n: Long time fellas! This was just a brief comeback (if you can call it that) 'cause it had been too many days without writing. I am planning to make this one either a two-shot or three-shot, but not more than that.

Updates are going to be none too soon. _Cocktail_ is not going to be updated anytime soon, since I haven't even thought about how I am going to continue that story.

Other than that, hope all is good. Toodles!


	2. Almost

A/n: A few dedications at the end of the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 2:

A tap on her left shoulder makes her head turn that way. That doesn't stop her from her jog, though. She keeps on running, her brows creasing in a frown as she doesn't notice anyone to her left. A huffing sound to her right and she knows before turning it's him.

It's the little trick he always used to play on her and the one she always used to fall for. For a second, a nostalgic pang makes its presence felt in her ribs, that she sends away after decidedly not looking his way.

He easily falls in step with her, their footfall echoing in unison on the cement pavement. He doesn't say anything; he knows her full well to understand that one word to irk her this early in the morning, and she wouldn't hesitate to send a powerful smack his way. If concentrated hard enough to fuzzy out the details of their schedule for the day ahead, Kavin can almost pretend it is just like the times before; both of them running together. But memory isn't so lenient. Soon both will be back to their routine, trying to pretend reeking ignorance for the other.

* * *

 _Ugh, the sugarless coffee again._

Her mouth twitches at the thought of having to drink that insipid caffeinated beverage (it can't be called a coffee) they serve in the cafeteria. She knows she mustn't complain; the food is relatively better than all the other cafeteria's she's tried, but a good cup of coffee in the mornings is something Purvi misses a lot.

The beige liquid in the mug sloshes a little as Kavin slides it toward her. She instantly savors the strong, sweet smell her nostrils are filled with. It's the coffee she likes.

The only small thing holding her back from tasting it, is the person who gave her the coffee. Kavin senses this as he says, 'I'll admit, the sentence that I'm going to say next is inspired a little by Remus Lupin. Drink the coffee. It'll make you feel better"

"I'm smiling because I want to smile. It has nothing to do whatsoever with whatever you said" through the warmth of the coffee that penetrates the ceramic cup, "thank you" she tells him. He nods his head in a silent welcome.

"Friends do that, don't they? Getting coffee for friends? I miss being being friends with you"

The words leave his mouth before his mind can register the aftermath of uttering them. Purvi just looks into the coffee deadpan as she cradles the cup in her hand. Half expecting to receive the hot coffee being splashed on his face, Kavin is instead treated to a callous silence.

"We were friends, weren't we? Before we were...more?" The long suffering look she gives him is more than enough to rip his heart into a million tiny pieces.

They were friends alright.

 _Until I messed up like the idiot I am_ he thinks miserably.

She's already left.

* * *

Always, _always_ that idiot has to open his mouth to say something idiotic. Purvi can't help being frustrated by the little- _not-so-little_ \- ounce of hope- _want_ -she still has for him. It's crazy really. _He_ drives her crazy. Oh gods, not _that_ way! Not at all. It's in the manner he knows her-too well- the way the strings of her hearts work and it's the way he somehow manages to tug at the wrong one.

Moron.

The training can't end soon enough.

* * *

He has missed her.

The smiles, their coffee breaks, the way she punched his shoulder when he tried to be too funny and her ability to make him feel like a misbehaving five year old. Gods, has he missed her. She walks into he cafeteria the precise moment this realization dawn on him-loads up her plate and walks out without sparing a glance elsewhere. Meaning, she's dead angry.

And on this exciting note, he rolls his eyes at himself (is that even possible?) congratulating himself for earning the number one spot on the list of people she's mad at, all in two-rather impulsively- spoken sentences.

 _Way to go, buddy. Way to go_ , he thinks dejectedly.

* * *

"Look, I am sorry. For whatever I said. Just try to forget it, okay? Let's just pretend I never said anything while giving you the coffee"

She is looks at him rather skeptically after this monologue and wonders for the millionth time how sincere he manages to look. She knows he is being sincere and also that he knows that she knows he is being sincere because despite everything, they _know_ each other. They always will, probably ( _hopefully always,_ he thinks)

Kavin walks away this time, leaving her to figure out just how exactly she had fallen for him in the first place. What was it, really? He played the idiot, she liked to be intellectual. He liked tea, she liked coffee. She was dead serious while working, he liked to lighten the mood. But then, he was the Spring to her Autumn. Something like that, yeah.

 _Oh what the Hades_ , she doesn't have the time to deal with that right now. She was angry at him anyway before he opened his mouth, no difference really.

And it's not until she has returned from her jog the next day, pausing to look at the sunrise that she realizes what the difference is. The difference, she thinks while marveling at its slight pathetic-ness, is that she can't turn around and just lean her forehead against his, theirs breaths creating a weird kind of rhythm and in that moment feel the world stop around her.

And she _almost_ misses it.

* * *

A/n: Dedications after such a long time!

This chapter is dedicated to all those friends I don't often talk with, but would want to give out a friendly wave to *grins and waves and yells 'hi!' * Kv's Neha, Kuki17, Sarru, Topaz007, kv's lover sunshine dareya, Meghana0106, Zoya.F, purvi's niharika, disani, Sheeza517 and surely Divya26. I hope I haven't left out anyone's name but in case that happens, (CF and ES, you guys don't fall into this group) and you consider me a friend, feel free to tell me.


End file.
